Our choices to represent us in the First Congressional District of Kansas will be: Incumbent Tim Huelscamp, and Challengers: Kent Roth and Alan LaPolice.

Believe it or not this is an improvement as Rep. Huelscamp, in Congress since 2011, ran unopposed in 2012! He initially won his seat after winning a wild primary with numerous contestants including Dr. James Barnett from Emporia.

Speaking from a personal point of view Tim Huelscamp has been an embarrassment as my representative in Washington. His ultra conservative positions seem unwavering and only get worse. At a time when gridlock in Washington is one of the biggest problems Huelscamp is exactly the opposite of what is needed, yet no one even ran against him in the last election.

There would appear to be reason for hope when polling consistently indicates over 51% of First District Kansans do not approve of Huelscamp’s activities.

Former Kansas legislator Kent Roth from Ellenwood announced his campaign to unseat Congressman Huelscamp months ago. I sent him a donation and he sent me a bumper sticker that says – No Labels – Kick Too Crazy for Kansas Out of Congress.

Not sure how effective that is, but I did put one on my car.

Earlier this week Kent Roth solicited me again.

His letter thanked me for my donation, defined the Federal contribution limits for me, pointed out the polling numbers mentioned earlier and suggested splitting the opposition vote in the primary would not be good. He then dropped the bombshell that truly explains the value of being an incumbent like Huelscamp.

Kent told me had cash on hand of $15,756; the other person in the race had $14,402 but our incumbent congressman Tim Huelscamp reported cash on hand in excess of $800,000!

Not exactly a positive message for a want-a-be supporter, huh?

My question is what can we do about our congressman? He’s a bright guy, PhD in political science, concentrating on agriculture policy from American University, but he does not seem to represent us well.

If you agree with me the time to take action is now, but fifteen grand compared to 800,000 THAT is a big problem. Any ideas?